NHL playoffs: Lightning force Game 7; Canucks set sights on crown

Thursday

May 26, 2011 at 2:00 AM

TAMPA, Fla. — Martin St. Louis and Teddy Purcell each scored twice, resilient goalie Dwayne Roloson weathered a hat trick by Boston’s David Krejci, and the Tampa Bay Lightning stayed alive in the Eastern Conference finals with a win over the Boston Bruins in Game 6 on Wednesday night.

The Associated Press

TAMPA, Fla. — Martin St. Louis and Teddy Purcell each scored twice, resilient goalie Dwayne Roloson weathered a hat trick by Boston’s David Krejci, and the Tampa Bay Lightning stayed alive in the Eastern Conference finals with a win over the Boston Bruins in Game 6 on Wednesday night.

Game 7 is Friday night in Boston. The Bruins are seeking their first trip to the Stanley Cup finals in 21 years, and the Lightning will try to clinch their first appearance on hockey’s biggest stage since they won their only NHL championship in 2004.

The Western champion Vancouver Canucks await the winner in the finals.

St. Louis also assisted on a third-period goal that put the Lightning up 4-2. His second goal – and NHL-leading 10th of the playoffs – restored Tampa Bay’s two-goal lead after Boston pulled within 4-3 on one of two goals Krejci scored to keep the Bruins within striking distance in the closing minutes.

Roloson, who didn’t play in Game 5 after being pulled from two of the previous three games because of ineffectiveness, also gave up a pair of first-period goals and finished with 16 saves.

Boston’s Tim Thomas gave up another early goal, then struggled after Krejci and Milan Lucic scored to give the Bruins a 2-1 lead through one period.

The Lightning took control when St. Louis, Purcell and Steven Stamkos scored power-play goals within a 12-minute span of the second and third periods.

Roloson improved to 7-0 in elimination games during his career, including 4-0 this postseason. The Lightning rallied from a 3-1 deficit to beat Pittsburgh in the first round, with their goalie shutting out the Penguins in Game 7 on the road.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Trevor Linden is tired of celebrating a loss as the greatest moment in Vancouver Canucks history.

Seventeen years after he captained the Canucks to their last Stanley Cup finals and three years since his last game, Linden hopes this year's team, still loaded with former teammates, can give the city something really worth commemorating.

As far as Linden is concerned, it's time to relegate the Canucks' 1994 run, which ended with a Game 7 loss to the Rangers, to the second-most memorable moment of the franchise's 40-year history.

These current Canucks, he said, are capable of setting a better benchmark.

"This team I believe is going to win and they will be celebrated for all the right reasons," Linden told The Associated Press on Wednesday, a day after the Canucks clinched a finals berth with a 3-2 double-overtime win against the San Jose Sharks.

"And that's winning. After 17 years, to be honest it isn't a topic I was particularly comfortable talking about, the '94 team. We didn't win, right?

"Hopefully they take it one step further."

Being four wins short of a Stanley Cup certainly didn't mute the celebrations in Vancouver late Tuesday night. Thousands of fans streamed into a downtown strip for an impromptu street party while a few blocks away blue and green confetti was still falling onto Canucks players celebrating a dramatic win that gave them a chance to play for the Stanley Cup for just the third time in 40 years.